A reader sent a link to this graphic after reading this story here on MANN. More grist for the mill. Being fat incurs greater health care costs than smoking and drinking *combined*.

Let's call it what it is, guys: fat. That's what it is. You can say "obese" or "overweight", but when people see a fat person of either sex, they simply say to themselves: "fat". That's the reality. Political correctness insists on "obesity", but everyone knows a duck when he sees one-- and he calls it a duck. And the longer a person stays fat, the avoidably shorter their lifespan gets and their quality of life just continues to drop. And the thing is, it's so avoidable. It's the one thing people well and truly have substantial control over: how much they eat and how much exercise they get. It's just a matter of making the right choice, that's all.

Article here. Amazing-- someone in the MSM has finally started to pay attention to the stats around the voting polls! But as I said before, don't expect Obama et al. to pay attention to men's votes. Feminists just don't seem to think men are very important so naturally subconsciously think our votes don't count. Rule #1 in electoral politics: "Every vote counts-- every single one of them." It's a real bush-league mistake to ignore that fact, but myopia is a sin anyone can be guilty of, and it can't be cured by donning rose-colored lenses. Living inside a bubble such as the one every high-level politician sitting in office for any length of time tends to cause such lenses to grow in front of their eyes of their own accord. Excerpt:

'A barrage of attention from the presidential candidates and the news media has been paid to "waitress moms," "Walmart women" and other exhibits of the female species this election, with pundits wondering whether the female gender gap, which works in the president's favor, will carry him over the top on Election Day.

But the focus might be better spent on men.

"The issue is not the women's vote, but the men's vote," Frank Newport, Gallup's editor-in-chief, told Yahoo News. The reason: polls show male voters look much more likely to break from their 2008 voting patterns. If that happens, the men's vote could decide whether Barack Obama or Mitt Romney becomes the next president.

Four years ago, Obama won 49 percent of the male vote, buoyed by historic gains with white men, who chose the Democratic candidate in the highest proportions seen since Jimmy Carter. Even so, most white men—57 percent of them—still voted for John McCain, and a majority of such voters have not backed a Democratic candidate since 1964, when men began abandoning the Democratic party.

Article here. Excerpt:

'In Maryland, the Child Support Payment Incentive Program is taking small steps to chip away at the mountain of bad child support debt. The Office of Child Support Enforcement acknowledges that 63% of fathers in arrears report earnings of $10,000 or less per year.

The Maryland program allows noncustodial parents with incomes below 225 percent of the federal poverty level and who have made 24 months of consecutive child-support payments on their current obligation to have their arrears reduced to zero. Also, as of October 1, the new legislation will automatically suspend child-support orders for anyone sentenced to 18 or more months in jail and lacking the financial means to pay.

While other states continue to strip away licenses to drive and professional and occupational licenses, Maryland is making some small steps to acknowledge that some dads are just “dead-broke” and the state is better off helping them reenter the workforce – and the lives of their children.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'As community leaders mobilize support for a Yates High School student who admitted she lied about being sexually assaulted last week, Houston police have not ruled out the possibility of criminal charges against the teen.

The 15-year-old girl told police that a man abducted her on Noah Street near Cyrill Park on the way home from school, dragged her into an abandoned house and sexually assaulted her. She provided a detailed description of man, as well as other information.

But authorities discovered evidence that made her story questionable, and she ultimately admitted that the Oct. 24 assault never happened, said activist Deric C. Muhammad, who held a news conference Friday at the park.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Suzanne Moore has told the Today audience that men are banned from debating abortion. They can't have an abortion, so how dare they talk about its rights and wrongs? This is a women-only subject, so back off, boys.

The logic of this was confused, as Medhi Hasan, who confessed his pro-life views in his blog, told the lady in the van. (Moore was in a radio car. Thank goodness: otherwise blood would have been spilled.)

You bet: that's like arguing that women can't debate male circumcision just because they don't have a male member that can be snipped. Moore should remember that it was David Steel, a man, who pressed for the 1967 Abortion Act; and that two WOMEN ministers are calling for its review.

The truth is, both men and women have children, and THAT is what this debate is about. When does life begin in the womb? When is a foetus a child? Men as well as women have a sense of morality, and a stake in future generations.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'The seminar held to discuss involvement of men in gender activism and issues related to women's rights. The study captured stories of 5 men who took affirmative actions against sexual violence against men, women and transgender persons in the context of Pakistan. Sadia Sahrif from SDPI moderated the proceedings while Safillulah Khan from Rozan explained research methodology with participants.

Article here. Excerpt:

'The Affordable Care Act mentions “breast” 44 times, “prostate” not once. It also establishes an elaborate and expensive network of special programs to promote women’s health. Programs for men are nowhere to be found. What explains the imbalance?

Link here. Excerpt:

'A Polish woman charged with murder in the stabbing deaths of her seven-year-old son and a five-year-old girl she was babysitting had been upset about her own father's recent death, a prosecutor says.

But what role Elzbieta Plackowska's grief over her father's death may have played in her actions on Tuesday - when authorities say she stabbed the two children dozens of times as they begged for their lives - DuPage County State's Attorney Robert Berlin could not say.
...
Plackowska, a 40-year-old Polish immigrant, told investigators that her husband, a truck driver, used to bring her flowers and gifts, but she resented him being home only on weekends and that she had to work as a maid, which she felt was beneath her, Berlin said.

"She felt he truly did not appreciate how fine a wife and mother she was," he said.'

Last week, members of the Intact America staff, along with dozens of intactivists from around the country, attended the 2012 American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) convention in New Orleans, Louisiana. Unlike in years past, this year the AAP barred us from hosting a booth inside the exhibition hall, citing as a reason Intact America’s planned demonstration, which we promoted on our Facebook page. The real reason they barred us: They know we are right. They are afraid of us. And they want to pretend we don’t exist.

Well, thanks to your generous support, we made our presence VERY well known:

• We staged a major press conference attended by supporters as well as doctors and people new to the cause. The event was subsequently covered by The Washington Post!
• We spent three days protesting on the corner directly across the street from the convention center, on the sidewalks in front of the building, and on the “neutral ground”—a strip of land in the middle of the street, a spot impossible for the convention-goers and passers-by to miss. We talked with attendees; we walked and hoisted our signs and voices high. See our AAP Conference Report Page for more photos, and our Facebook page for even more.
• Intact America reinvested the funds from the exhibition booth into running our Open Letter in both the New Orleans Times-Picayune and the Baton Rouge Advocate—twice!—reaching several million people over that weekend.

Link here. Excerpt:

'More than fifty Men’s Sheds across Australia will receive funding from the Australian Government to upgrade their facilities or buy new equipment and tools, in the latest round of grants announced today by Minister for Indigenous Health Warren Snowdon.

“Men’s Sheds offer more than just a place for blokes to catch up and work on the tools – in many parts of country Australia they give men a lifeline to a network of mates and support,” Mr Snowdon said.

“In this round of funding we looked at giving priority to towns and regions with higher than average rates of unemployment – we know men in these areas are more likely to suffer from isolation.”

“We provide the money for the bricks and tools, but it’s the men and their camaraderie that make these sheds work,” Mr Snowdon said.

58 Men’s Sheds from across the country will share in $125,000 worth of funding to assist with purchasing tools for woodwork, including saws, drills and safety equipment, as well as providing money for upgrades to facilities.

I don't need to talk too much about Hurricane Sandy at this point, but just in case you have been living under a rock the past 1-2 weeks and just came up for air, read about it here. Millions without power or ready access to food and medical help remain while homes, businesses, infrastructure are still flooded. Thousands of people also remain stranded in some places and it may take days (as of this writing) to get them out.

So, who is doing the work to restore power, and who had it going in the first place? Who are fighting the fires that have broken out in places as a result of the storm? Who are risking their own lives regularly to rescue others? Who are risking their lives to maintain or restore law and order in places that are currently still, literally, in the dark?

Article here. Excerpt:

'When the subject of eating disorders comes up, most people naturally think it’s a chick thing. But the latest research shows that gender is neither a predictor of—or an insurance policy against—body image issues. In fact, the number of guys worldwide who suffer from eating disorders is on the rise, according to Eating Disorders: The Journal of Treatment & Prevention. “There’s a lot more pressure these days for guys to have a cut body than there used to be in the past,” says Ted Weltzin, MD, medical director of eating disorder services at Rogers Memorial Hospital in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin.

Video report here. The video report has no text, so here is some information on the topic from Wikipedia. Excerpt:

'Several studies argue that male-male prisoner rape, as well as female-female prisoner rape, might be the most common and least-reported forms of rape, with some studies suggesting such rapes are substantially more common in both per-capita and raw-number totals than male-female rapes in the general population.

Research from the UK suggests that almost 3% of men reported a non-consensual sexual experience as adults and over 5% of men reported sexual abuse as a child. This does not take into account the possibility of underreporting. Recognition of male on male rape in law has historically been limited; the first successful prosecution for attempted male on male rape in the UK was not until 1995.
...
Much like female erectile response and contrary to popular opinion, male erectile response is involuntary, meaning that a man need not consent for his penis to become erect and be placed in a woman's vagina. Penetration of a man by a woman is possible through forcible stimulation of external male genitalia or the anus, or by forced penetration of the anus with the use of strap-ons, dildos, other foreign objects which could include a tongue (inserted or external) in forced oral, forced digit manipulation, and digital penetration. A woman could also force a man to perform oral sex on her. Rape of a man by a woman could also occur when limited sexual activities are agreed upon and a man's penis is placed in a woman in violation of the limits that had been set. Rape of a man by a woman is thus possible in several ways.

Look at this image. If you can't download it due to volume restrictions, try later. It's that good. Then when you see it, save it to your hard drive (if you don't know how to do this, see this .pdf document; if you are still confused, ask someone for help).

This is the image feminists don't want you you to see. It's a picture of a US soldier just back from deployment whose wife got pregnant just before he left. He had never seen his baby until now. And the picture tells it all as far as his reaction-- as well as how he feels about his baby.

Article here. Excerpt:

'There is an ongoing, increasing and predominantly silent crisis in the health and well-being of men. Due to a lack of awareness, poor health education, and culturally induced behavior patterns in their work and personal lives, men's health and well-being are deteriorating steadily. Society is being dramatically affected because men are living approximately 5 years less than women.'